My Little Pony: The Test of Friendship

by McThriller

Chapter 8- A Dangerous Nightmare

Chapter 8- A Dangerous Nightmare

As the day was drawing to a close, the sky grew darker and darker. The warm rays from the sun were replaced by a chilling wind that blew through the air. For most creatures, it was time for them to drift off to sleep but for those that are nocturnal, it was their time to be active. Usually everypony is asleep at this time but there is an exception from a certain princess of the night.

In Canterlot, of the two alicorn sisters that rule Equestria, Luna is the one who performs the nightly duties of raising the moon and creating the stars that shine brightly all across the night sky. After she has completed this task, she will spend the rest of the night traveling into the dream realm. Inside this realm, she can freely move from one ponies dream to another and help those who are experiencing a nightmare. The nightmares don’t come often but when they do, she is there to give guidance to any pony who needs it and helps encourage them to face it head on.

Tonight started like any other night for her, once she entered the dream realm she would search through everyponies dreams for any nightmares that were happening. She encountered a few along the way but were easily resolved. After fixing the dreams, she would leave through a door that would appear whenever the dream is peaceful, that door led to a hallway filled with many more doors. This hallway wasn’t like that of the hospital, there didn’t seem to be walls that connected with these doors, in fact it was more like a void that had no beginning or end in sight. The void was filled with sparkling lights that resembled the stars in the sky at night, and dark clouds that floated above and below the doors.

She double checked to make sure she had been through every door, making sure that every pony was having a soothing dream. “Let’s see, I believe that does it for this evening,” she spoke aloud to herself.

Satisfied with the work she did tonight, she decided it was about time to leave the dream realm. Using her magic, she focused it towards her horn as it began to glow and slowly a gateway into the real world was opening but was interrupted by a weeping echo that vibrated through her ears and filled the void. She immediately stopped casting her spell, causing the gateway to close, and frantically searched all around her to find out where the weeping was coming from. At first it was hard to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from, but slowly she was able to hear the direction it was coming from and followed the sound as the sounds grew louder and louder with each step. She would continue to pass by door after door, each was shaped differently from the other and had defining features that separated them from other doors. She passed by a green wooden door with a small beach ball carved at the top, then a golden door with small jewels embedded into the sides.

Continuing further down the hallway, she grew concerned as the sobbing still continued and was beginning to worry who the pony was that was making these noises. She looked at each door she passed, making sure if any of them were open but they were all sealed shut. She sped up her pace to hopefully find the source quickly and help the pony out before things would get any worse. The sobs continued to get louder and louder, filling her ears up to the point that it was the only thing she could hear, not even the sound of her hooves clicking could penetrate the ongoing noise in her head.

Eventually her mind was clear, the sounds of crying seemed to have stopped. She looked ahead and noticed a small pony who was softly crying, laying on the ground and curled up into a ball.

She slowed down as she got closer to the pony, noticing how small they looked on the ground and assumed it was either a filly or colt that was making the noise. She wondered how they even got here in the first place, the only way it was possible to be in this hallway was if she brought them here herself. But feeling like it wasn’t time to be asking questions, she made it a priority to help the little pony and get them back into their dream.

“Are you alright little one? What is causing you to-” she immediately gasped, as to what she was witnessing in front of her.

It was not an actual pony, but a black smoke that formed the silhouette of one. This smoke was more black than coal but looked dense and solid like it was a physical body. It was wisping from the top of its head to the back of its flank, and the bottom of its hooves.

Seeing this being in her sight reminded her of how the Tantabus looked, only this one was darker and had a mysterious aura surrounding it. She hesitated to speak, this pony of smoke was different from her Tantabus but it still brought back some bad memories of when she lost control and it escaped into other ponies dreams, creating nightmares that she had to fix. She hesitated, not knowing if it was friend or foe and taking caution as to what it might be doing, “W-what are you?”

The pony formed of smoke stopped crying and slowly rose to all four legs, upon closer inspection it was smaller than her, but it didn’t show any features of being a filly or a colt. It turned around and faced her, it had no eyes, no nose or even a mouth.

She backed up with caution, unsure what it was about to do or what it was planning, “Where did you come from?”

The smoked being didn’t respond to her question, remaining silent it turned towards a door that it was standing next to. The door had a dark red oak wood to it with a black metal frame around the edges. The handle looked a little rusty but was still firmly connected to the door.

This was the first time she noticed a door like this, after spending many nights in the dream realm she would have remembered seeing it but this was the first time it appeared. ‘Is this where it came from? How did it get out here?’ Her mind wandered as she tried putting the pieces together, ‘Hmm...if it just appeared then somepony must have just fallen asleep.’

The smoked being walked closer to the door, not giving her anytime to ask any questions. Before anything else could be said, it walked through the door like a ghost.

She couldn’t believe what she witnessed, it walked through the door like there was never one there. She didn’t know what it was after, was it trying to show her where to go or could it possibly be a trap. She could feel that something inside of her was telling her to follow it. She had to take the gamble, she took a deep breath to calm herself down and mentally prepared for whatever dream she was about to encounter. She opened the door as a bright white light shined through the whole doorway, making it hard to see what was on the other side. She took the first step and slowly walked towards the light, after passing through the door closed behind her.

She had to shield her eyes from the blazing light, it soon died down to the point where she could open them again. Her vision was fuzzy at first but slowly became focused and clear to the sight of white puffy clouds.

Clouds were everywhere in sight, they made the soft ground below her hooves , they shaped many different structures and held together buildings. Many pegasi could be seen flying through the air and walking on the same ground as her.

At this time she knew where she was at, Cloudsdale, the mobile city in the sky that floated over the land of Equestria. Home to pegasus ponies and central location for developing clouds, rainbows, and snowflakes.

She was surprised to see how normal things seemed to look in this dream, in fact it almost felt like she was just transported to the city. But that changed when she noticed how everything was colorless, from the pegasi to the buildings, even the clouds looked more grey than white.

She remembered that she was looking for the pony made of smoke and began searching around this monochrome world. As she observed her surroundings, she noticed that everypony she walked past didn’t pay attention to her and continued on like it was a typical day. She would try calling out to them but end up being ignored by all of them, even waving a hoof in their face didn’t seem to grab their attention. She walked down the busy streets and kept her eyes peeled in case this dream would give her clues as to where she was supposed to look. While searching, a little filly was galloping towards her at full speed. She didn’t notice the filly until the last second and tried to stop herself but was too late to react as the filly was about to collide with her. She waited for the impact but felt nothing as the filly just ran through her, quickly transforming into white smoke before reappearing as the filly again behind her. The filly continued to gallop down the road like nothing happened, until she disappeared into the crowd.

This was very new to her, in most dreams she enters she has always been able to touch whatever was there. She tried touching a pegasus walking by but they also turned into smoke before reappearing and moving forward like nothing happened. It was clear to her now that none of these ponies could touch her or see her as she proceeded through the large crowds and walked through every pony that was in her way. Her search continued with no results, everything looked the same to her and not being able to talk to anypony was only making it more difficult. “Hello! Is there anypony I can speak to!” She shouted, hoping some pony would respond but it did nothing as everypony was still ignoring her. She thought maybe it would be best to try flying somewhere else in the dream but an echo rang in her ears softly, “This way...”

Her ears twitched as she quickly searched the area, there were too many pegasi around to find out exactly where the voice came from.The same voice echoed louder and repeated into her ear, “This way.....”

She moved through the crowd again, not knowing where to go but deep inside it felt like she was being guided towards the direction of where it might be coming from. The same words kept repeating into her head over and over again, making her brain throb a bit and hard to think. Finally the voice in her head was silenced, she stopped when she saw what came into view, it was the same black smoked pony from the hallway, standing there in the middle of the road, like it was waiting for her to find it.

Seeing it again was making her anxious, she wasn’t sure why but this thing was leading her somewhere and she had to know where, “What are you trying to show me?” She asked while cautiously stepping closer.

The smoked creature stayed silent while walking away from her, on the side of the main road was a dark alleyway that led into the darkness. It entered the alleyway and walked closer into the darkness, looking back to her before submerging into the abyss.

She could tell it was saying to follow her, but something didn’t feel right about this alley. It feels like something inside of her has been reawakened and is being drawn towards the darkness, ‘Could it be? Is the Tantabus returning!?’

Even though she was finally able to overcome her past and forgive herself, she thought it would be gone for good after merging together but now it feels like it’s trying to come back. ‘Is something in this darkness bringing it back? Could there be a nightmare inside that’s worse than what I went through!?’

She was starting to get nervous at this point, it was bad enough to have to deal with the Tantabus again but now it’s being drawn to whatever lies ahead. She didn’t understand why this was happening, ‘Could that mysterious smoke be the cause of this?’

This was starting to feel more dangerous, whatever that thing is trying to show her, she had to deal with it quickly before it could get any worse. With a few puffs of air into her lungs and a steady mind, she proceeded into the abyss. The further in she goes, the darker it gets until it was darker than the night itself. She looked backed the way she came and noticed that the alley was gone, replaced with nothing but a black void. The entire area was empty, nothing could be seen for miles ahead or behind but yet she was able to see her hooves, flank and the rest of her body.
She could feel the solid ground beneath her hooves and with every step she took, the clicking of her hooves would echo, filling the empty void with the endless sound.

It felt pointless to keep moving if she didn’t know where to go but with some focus and concentration, her horn started to glow and with a burst of power, a bright light blasted in every direction and expanded a wide range to help brighten her surroundings and possible find a clue as to where she needed to go.

At first it didn’t seem to change anything, but as seconds went by the ground was slightly shaking. Then the shaking grew more violently as if it was becoming an earthquake. She fumbled around as the shakes continued for a minute but it quickly stopped after that.

Suddenly the sound of sobbing was filling the void, it sounded exactly like what she heard before entering this dream. Her head was on a swivel as she tried to find the source of the sobbing and saw the same smoke pony but it was standing over an actual small pony who was holding their hooves over their face and crying. The pony was wrapped in what appears to be a gray colored blanket, which covered their entire body from head to hoof but left an opening to see the bottom half of their face.

Witnessing the crying pony, she thought this must be what it was trying to lead her to as she walked closer to them. She glanced at the smoked figure as it turned towards her before fading away, leaving the crying pony by themselves. She moved closer to the crying pony and asked, “What is troubling you little one?”

The pony stopped their sobbing and began to whisper, “They’re gone.....”

She was feeling concerned for the pony, they were all alone and she wanted to help, “Who is gone?”

They kept repeating the same words, “They’re gone...they’re gone...”

She placed a hoof on the pony to try and help calm them down, “I want to help you but you need to tell me who you are talking about.”

The pony pulled away from her, gritting their teeth as they stood in front of her, “Gone...gone...gone,” the words were getting louder and more aggressive each time, “Gone,Gone,Gone,Gone.”

Her body seemed to be reacting to the pony as if they were trying to draw the Tantabus out of her, “Please you need to calm down, the more you lose control of your emotions the more unstable your dreams become!”

They ignored her as they continued to grow more furious,“Gone!Gone!Gone!GONE!GONE!” The ground shook again and with each word they spoke, the more violent the shakes would become.

Cracks began forming from the ground, bright orange light was seeping out from them,and the ground was getting hotter and hotter. Her body was struggling to keep it together as she could feel that the Tantabus was returning and wanted to get out. She tried calling out to them again but was interrupted as flames started bursting out of the ground. The flames rose high above Luna, the heat coming off them was scorching and if she got too close then it was most likely gonna burn her. They formed pillars of fire around her and the pony and spread around until they connected and formed a barrier, trapping them both inside with no chance of getting out.

This dream wasn’t like any other dream she encountered before, the fire was hot, much hotter than it should be. A dream shouldn’t feel this real and yet with this one, she could feel the heat coming from the fire. It was so real and if she touched the fire, it’s possible she could actually get burned. ‘This can’t be right, if I get burned here then does that mean I’ll also get burned outside the dream realm too?’ This was becoming a very bad situation, her mind was racing as she tried to figure out what to do next. She glanced back at the pony who just stood there and stared at her, the light from the flames revealed an enraged face with hatred in their eyes. She had to protect the pony, if she could get hurt in this dream then it could be possible they can as well, “Quickly! You need to stay close to me!”

Her voice seemed to fall death on their ears, instead the pony just started backing up into the fire. They stared intently at her while backing closer and closer, not even hesitating from the heat.

She shouted at them to stop but it was too late, the pony emerged into the fire. She closed her eyes and looked away, fearing to see them scream in agony and watch them burn, but there wasn’t any screaming. She opened her eyes to see what was happening but the pony was gone, they seemed to have disappeared into the fire without a trace. To make matters worse, the fire was drawing closer to her by the minute, her body was heating up and she began to sweat. Her space was becoming limited and she had no way of flying out of it.

The air was becoming thin as she struggled to breathe and could feel her lungs burning. The flames weren’t letting up and time was running out, she was starting to get fatigued quickly and had to make a move now. She closed her eyes and focused on her magic, with a blast of magical energy she was able to create a wall and pressed it against the ground that the flames were coming out of, making an opening for her to escape. The wall was just wide enough for her to squeeze through but her lungs were slowly losing air, causing her magic to grow weak. Her coat was getting moist as her body temperature was still rising from being toasted in the dome, she started to sweat profusely but with enough strength and effort she jumped through the opening and barely made it to the other side before her magic faded and the flames just missed burning her tail.

She failed to land on her legs and slid across the floor, the extra sweat added to her body made her slide farther away from the fire. She finally had a chance to get that much needed air back into her lungs as they burned and had to cough, but she was able to regain herself and her body temperature was slowly cooling down.

With a refocused mind and recovering lungs, she stood up and looked back towards where the fire was. Her eyes went wide as there was nothing there, it was as if the fire never existed but that was impossible because she could still feel her body sweating and the tingling in her lungs. She thought maybe this dream was possibly messing with her mind but denied it cause she could still feel it and it was real, “This is much more dangerous than I thought. If I’m not careful...I could end up trapped in here or worse.....”

“Trapped...” That same voice echoed in her head, she looked around and saw the smoked figure again, standing a few feet away.
She stepped back and aimed her horn at it, now believing that this thing is her enemy, “So was that a trap? Were you trying to get rid of me?” She wasn’t sure what she got herself into but now felt that whatever this thing was, it can’t remain here.

The smoked figure didn’t respond again, slowly it began approaching her. It’s silence was wearing thin on her as it kept getting closer and closer to her.

“That’s far enough!” Her horn glowed brighter as she was preparing to fire at it. “You will tell me why you brought me here or I will erase right here and now!”

It stopped in place, the threat seemed to finally get a reaction. But it lifted one of its wisping hooves and pointed behind her, telling her to turn around.

She couldn’t trust it but her body was slowly fighting against her as she turned around and saw a door slowly coming out of the darkness, “Another door?” Seeing this door made her even more confused, she didn’t understand what it was this thing was trying to tell her, “Why is there a door here? Is this suppose to be an exit?”

The smoked figure walked past her and headed towards the door. It stopped right in front and sat,turning back towards her, “Trapped...,” it repeated the same word.

“Trapped? Is something trapped behind this door?” she asked, her guard was still up as she approached the door slowly. Upon closer inspection, this door was different from all the other doors in the dream realm. This door looked older and more worn out, it was all metal with chains wrapped around it. There didn’t seem to be an actual lock on the door but she could tell that there was something different about it.

“Lost...forgotten...” The words spoken from this thing was making no sense to her.

“What do you mean? What is behind this door?” She examined the door closely, trying to see if there was a way for her to remove the chains and open the door.

“Memories.....” The pony replied.

Her ears twitched after what she just heard, “Did you just say memories? This door leads into someponies memories?” She couldn’t believe it, ever since she first took responsibility for looking over every ponies dreams she learned all kinds of things about how they work. How every dream is affected by what the pony is thinking before they sleep, what they are feeling and how it shapes the dream. She experienced many types of dreams and learned how each one was manifested. But at one point she learned that dreams can also be connected to memories, having ponies relive moments in their lives that they either enjoyed or wish they would forget. There have been a few instances where she was able to show past memories to ponies that needed help, but for a door to lock away a memory, this was new to her.

She looked at the figure beside her and asked herself how was this thing was able to guide her to this door. It seemed to know exactly where to take her and seemed to be able to travel through the dream world. Then it started to make sense, she figured out exactly what this thing was now and what it was trying to show her, “You’re...a subconscious...” She saw it nodded to her discovery of its identity.

“Y-you’re the subconscious of this dream!” This was big news for her, she learned that the subconscious is always hidden in every mind and can affect beliefs, experiences, skills and even memories. It’s a big part of how everypony functions and can control what they think of themselves. No one is ever aware of their subconscious but they are the guides to what all creatures do in life.

To actually see one in a physical form was shocking, to think a subconscious would show itself to her and ask for help, ‘Was this door the reason for it to appear?’

She now knew what she had to do now as she prepared her spell and shot a beam of blue light out of her horn towards the door hoping to break whatever was locking it, but suddenly a dark orange colored magic circle appeared in front of the door and protected it from the spell. The impact with the circular light caused an explosion of light, the force of the explosion pushed her back a few feet.

A cloud of white smoke covered the door, making it hard to tell if her spell had any effect.The smoke cleared and the magic circle was still there, “W-what’s going on?” She couldn’t believe what she saw, her spell seemed to have no effect as it stayed there with no visible damage to it, “A magic seal? Here in a dream? B-but how is that possible!?”

No pony should be able to use magic in the dream realm except for herself, she is the only one who can enter dreams. Not even her sister Celestia can enter, let alone use magic in dreams. This was troubling news to learn.

The seal started to glow as an eyeball was forming in the middle, this eyeball was black and had a sharp vertical pupil of a predator and a burnt orange eye color around it. The eye scanned the area before looking down and stared at Luna, it’s gaze brought a shiver down her spine and her body shook with fear. The eye was menacing, it felt as though it was drawing the Tantabus out of her. She has felt fear before when she had to face her old self as Nightmare Moon but this was on a different level. Sweat was beating down her face and her heart was racing, it was hard for her to breath and her chest was tightening up. It blinked a few times before closing itself, disappearing along with the bright magic seal only leaving the door behind.

Her legs collapsed underneath her body, her breathing was panicked as if she just avoided death. She slowly calmed down, her body was starting to regain some composure, “F-for my magic to do nothing...it's as if that seal was on a level of its own.” This was not looking good, if her magic couldn’t do anything then who knows how powerful the caster of this spell was “I have to report this to my sister,” she looked towards the subconscious being who stood and watched the scene, “Do you know who casted this spell?”

It didn’t respond, not giving her any clues as to who or what created the spell. “Please! Give me some kind of clue, so I can warn ponies of this threat!” She pleaded but the ground started shaking furiously, causing her to lose her balance and collapse to the floor. “What’s happening this time?”

“It’s here...” It replied, as the ground shook it remained in place but its physical form seemed to be fading away.

“What’s here?” she grew concerned for what might be approaching, the shaking seemed even more intense than before.

“The darkness.....” It answered as black tendrils slowly oozed from the ground, trying to wrap her and the subconscious up.

As the tendrils tried to grab her leg, she was able to kick them away but more kept trying to grab her. She extended her wings and flew off the ground right before they could grab her. But the tendrils were relentless as they grew longer and tried to pull her out of the sky. She charged her horn and blasted bright energy at the tendrils, some of the tendrils would get blasted off but more would grow back in place.

She looked to the ground and saw the tendrils have already gotten a hold of the subconscious, she tried blasting them but more would appear and sacrifice themselves to protect the ones that had grasped it. Her magic was proving pointless as these tendrils were endless and didn’t plan on stopping any time soon. She saw as they were slowly pulling it down into the ground, but the subconscious looked up to her, “Get out.....” it was able to say before fading away, not giving the tendrils a chance to catch it.

Luna’s heart was racing, the tendrils were everywhere as they seemed to be in control of the entire void. She tried her best to fend them off but was running low on magic. Her guard slipped as a tendril was able to wrap around her leg and pulled her towards the ground. Her body was cushioned from all the tendrils but they slithered across her body, wrapping themselves around her. The feeling of these tendrils made her disgusted, they weren’t wet or slimy yet they slithered on her like snakes. She tried to squirm out but they were proving to be stronger than her, her body was growing weaker with every passing second.

The tendrils were pulling her into the ground, she tried fighting her way out of their grasp but could do nothing as she slowly submerged into the abyss. The immediate darkness shifted as her surroundings changed, her body felt wet and water began to fill in her mouth as she looked to see that she was now underwater and still being pulled down by the tendrils. They kept pulling her deeper and deeper below, she felt hopeless and was slowly losing consciousness. From within her body a purplish smoke was seeping out of her body, the Tantabus was trying to escape but a tendril grabbed on and tried to pull on it. It tried to fight against the tendril that kept pulling but with Luna losing strength it didn’t have much power to fight back.

A bright red light started shining in the vast space of water, the rays showered over them, causing the tendrils to wriggle in pain and releasing both her and tearing off a piece of the Tantabus before sinking down and disappearing into the abyss with a small piece of purplish smoke in possession. The light seemed to be giving her strength as her consciousness was returning, giving her the power to pull the Tantabus back within and merging together again.

She looked towards the red light and saw that it was coming from a giant red crystal, sitting in place underwater. The crystal’s light was radiating as it blinded her sight, a calm and soothing female’s voice rang in her head, ‘You must find them, find them all before Equestria is consumed by darkness...’ The voice sounded so familiar to her, as if she heard it before, ‘I know you can do this... my little moonpie...’ Her eyes shot open upon hearing those words, ‘M-Mother!’ the light slowly faded away and the crystal was gone.

A sudden current pulled her through the water, carrying her away. A loud roaring sound was heard underwater, the currents continued pulling her to the source. She tried swimming up but the current was too strong and kept her at bay. Suddenly a current pushed her up and she was pushed to the surface, giving her a chance to breathe air finally. She coughed up some water that filled her lungs and tried inhaling as much as she could while still being carried by the current. The roaring sounds were becoming clear now that she was above the water, in her view a waterfall was coming up. She tried paddling in any direction to get away but there was nowhere for her to swim too. Her time was up as she fell down the waterfall, her body was soaked as she tried to use her wings and fly but was too heavy from absorbing all the water. She was helpless again as she just continued to fall down with the water.

Looking farther below she noticed the familiar door from when she first entered this dream suddenly appeared, it was facing horizontally from the waterfall but facing her perfectly as it opened. She opened her wings and tried to coordinate them with her trajectory to fall through the door, on the other side she was faced with a wall as she crashed into it. The door closed behind her and she fell off the wall and flopped against the ground, soaking wet and covered in water. She sat up and coughed up the remaining water that filled her lungs. When she was able to breath again she looked around to see where she had ended up this time.

To her surprise, she was back in her chambers at Canterlot. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things or a part of another trap, she sighed in relief when she saw that her room was still there. She had finally escaped from that crazy dream and survived the dangers within it.

Although she was glad to be out of there, she could still feel her wet fur and continued to cough up some water. Even though that was supposed to just be a dream, her mind and body could still feel the pain she went through while inside that dream. After everything she discovered, this scared her to know that there's somepony out there who is also entering dreams and messing with ponies memories. This was not a good sign as that could mean they could tamper with anyponies dreams, and if she could feel pain in them then there was a chance for the same to happen to others, or even worse if this continues to happen.

But something else was bothering her as well, she heard her mother in somepony else’s dream and warned her of Equestria’s danger. She wondered what her mother meant by that and what she was supposed to find. ‘Could it have to do with that red crystal?’

She could ask herself all the questions that needed to be solved but there was no time, she has to report what happened in the dream realm right away. Light started to shine through her window as the sun was beginning to rise, this meant that Celestia was awake. Without worrying about herself, she stood up and slammed the door open, quickly leaving her room. The guards around her door jumped when she bursted through and ran past them, towards the throne room. Many guards tried to call out to her and ask why she was rushing through the halls, but she ignored them as she had to get to Celestia right away, ‘I must tell my sister of this immediately, she has to know the dangers that may now be residing in the dream realm.’

As she continued galloping past more guards, royal advisors and other high end ponies, Celestia was sitting on her throne room chair in the middle of a big open room surrounded by glass portraits of all the accomplishments from her time to Twilight and her friends' time.

She was just about to begin her morning duties when Luna slammed the doors open in a panic. This gave Celestia a surprise to see her sister up at this time, she was wet and her face showed great concern, “Dearest sister! I have important news that I must tell you!”

Author's Note:

Well I got another chapter in, I hope it was enjoyable. I had time to write two chapters before I posted but felt I needed to evaluate this one a bit more. So thats why I waited a few days.